The Shevchenko District Court of Kyiv ordered the Bureau of Economic Security (BEB) to return UAH 21.2 million to Oleksandr Berezhanskyi, the owner of the “Blyzenko” chain of mini markets. These are the funds seized during the search of his house in Bryukhovychy due to suspicion of illegal VAT reimbursement. BEB detectives failed to prove that Berezhanskyi obtained this money illegally.
As write “Our money. Lviv”, searches in the offices of the “Berta Group” companies, which includes the “Blyzenko” chain of mini-markets, took place on December 17, 2022. At the same time, law enforcement officers also searched the private house of Oleksandr Berezhanskyi in Bryukhovychy.
Bureau of Economic Security officially reported, which revealed the scheme of illegal VAT reimbursement. According to the BEB, the company’s employees bought products from several enterprises during 2021-2022. After that, the goods were sold through other companies, as well as in stores of the “Blyzenko” network. Then false information was entered in the documents about the remaining goods in the warehouses and they received a VAT refund from the budget. In general, the detectives estimated the losses to the state at UAH 35.4 million. During the searches, more than UAH 25 million were seized.
However, now the decisions of the case include the amount of UAH 21.2 million, which detectives seized from Oleksandr Berezhanskyi’s house.
On February 1, 2023, the Shevchenkiv District Court of Kyiv considered the complaint of the lawyer Oleksandr Berezhansky, who demanded the return of the money and mobile phone seized during the search to his client. Neither the businessman’s lawyer nor the BEB detective came to the meeting. However, investigating judge Volodymyr Bugil came to the conclusion that the detectives could not prove that the money seized from Berezhansky was related to the case of illegal VAT reimbursement.
“The investigating judge does not have data that would indicate that the funds seized during the search contain traces of any criminal offenses and are of illegal origin, i.e., obtained by him as a result of illegal financial and economic activities as an individual entrepreneur “, the court decision says.
The judge also believes that there are no grounds to consider the seized money as illegally acquired property. After all, Berezhanskyi’s lawyer attached to the complaint his client’s tax declarations for April-August 2022, where it is indicated that during this period he received an income of more than UAH 95 million.
So the court satisfied Berezhanskyi’s complaint and ordered the BEB detectives to return UAH 21.2 million and a mobile phone seized during the search of his house.
